Full Description
A sustainable European workforce has become increasingly relevant in our present day and age. Flexibility and job insecurity are omnipresent; organizational workforces are displaying growing diversity with respect to age, gender, ethnicity and family status; and Europe's welfare states are delegating more and more responsibility for the well-being of workers to employers. Now more so than ever, organizations need to consider investing in workers to improve their performance and level of satisfaction. These investments can take many forms, including flexible work arrangements, training plans, child-related policies and health programs. The crucial question is how to make this happen. Why do some organizations invest more and others less in their employees? Why do some employees make use of these investments and while others do not? Why do such investments sometimes improve employee performance and satisfaction and sometimes not? This book addresses precisely these questions. The book contributes a new, large-scale survey of 259 organizations, 869 work units, and 11,011 employees in six diverse economic sectors in the Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and UK to study the causes and consequences of organizational investments.
This book appeals to undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and lecturers in the fields of Sociology, Business and Management, and Organizational Studies. It will also be useful for practitioners of Human Resource Management and others interested in workforce sustainability.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Contributors
Preface
Part 1. Organizations and their employees in a sustainable workforce
A sustainable workforce in Europe: Bringing the organization back in
Tanja van der Lippe
The institutional context of a sustainable workforce
Katia Begall and Anneke van Doorne-Huiskes
Collecting cross-country comparative multilevel data in organizations: The research design of the European Sustainable Workforce Survey
Zoltán Lippényi, Thomas Martens and Tanja van der Lippe
Part 2. A comparative approach to which organizations invest in employees: differences between sectors and countries
The differential influence of employee and organization characteristics on men and women's training participation
Nikki van Gerwen, Vincent Buskens and Maria das Dores Guerreiro
Investments in working parents: The use of parental leave
Leonie van Breeschoten, Katia Begall, Anne-Rigt Poortman and Laura den Dulk
Which older workers participate in which personnel policies?
Jelle Lössbroek, Joop Schippers, Bram Lancee and Stefan Szücs
Worksite Health Promotion in European organizations: Availability according to employers and employees
Anne van der Put and Jornt Mandemakers
Immigrants' access to employer-provided professional training within firms: An analysis for the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands
Silvia Maja Melzer
Part 3. Returns of investments in a Sustainable Workforce for employers and employees
HR investments in an employable workforce: Mutual gains or conflicting outcomes?
Jasmijn van Harten, Zoltán Lippényi and Paul Boselie
Temporary contracts, job uncertainty, and work-life balance: a multilevel study across European Organizations
Zoltán Lippényi, Alessandra Gasparotto and Youko Nätti
Human capital investments and the value of work: Comparing employees and solo self-employed workers
Wieteke Conen and Paul de Beer
Do female managers improve women's promotional opportunities?
Margriet van Hek and Anja Abendroth
Technology implementation within enterprises and changes in the educational and age composition of enterprise workforces
Jannes ten Berge and Maarten Goos
A sustainable workforce in Europe: Future challenges
Tanja van der Lippe and Éva Fodor
Bibliography
Index